History Commons^™

An Incident In Pocheon: The Death Of Sapper Gilles Ducasse, Andrew Burtch

Canadian Military History

The Canadian War Museum supports developmental research. This article is a by-product of the author’s continuing research into Canadian casualty records of the Korean War. This research helps to create a better picture of the makeup of the Canadian Army Special Force in Korea. When completed, it will shed greater light on when, where, and under what circumstances the 516 Canadians who are listed in the Korean War Book of Remembrance died. The research consists of a full review of the service records of Canadian military personnel who died in Korea or in support of the war from 1950 to …

Death At Licourt Revisited, Cameron Pulsifer

Canadian Military History

New Information comes to light about the five fatalities that occurred in the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade on the River Somme on 25 March 1918, as discussed in an article published in 2002.

Conceiving And Executing Operation Gauntlet: The Canadian-Led Raid On Spitzbergen, 1941, Ryan Dean, P. Whitney Lackenbauer

Canadian Military History

In August and September 1941, Canadian Brigadier Arthur Potts led a successful but little known combined operation by a small task force of Canadian, British, and Norwegian troops in the Spitzbergen (Svalbard) archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. After extensive planning and political conversations between Allied civil and military authorities, the operation was re-scaled so that a small, mixed task force would destroy mining and communications infrastructure on this remote cluster of islands, repatriate Russian miners and their families to Russia, and evacuate Norwegian residents to Britain. While a modest non-combat mission, Operation Gauntlet represented Canada’s first expeditionary operation in the …

Commemorating The Reformation: An Opportunity For Common Witness, Donna Geernaert

Consensus

No abstract provided.

“The Necessary War: Canadians Fighting The Second World War 1939–1943, Volume One (Book Review)” By Tim Cook & “Fight To The Finish: Canadians In The Second World War 1944–1945, Volume Two (Book Review)” By Tim Cook, Matthew S. Wiseman

Canadian Military History

Review of The Necessary War: Canadians Fighting the Second World War 1939–1943, Volume One & Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War 1944–1945, Volume Two by Tim Cook.

“Crisis And Control: The Militarization Of Protest Policing (Book Review)” By Lesley J. Wood, Tyler Wentzell

Canadian Military History

Review of Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing by Lesley J. Wood.

“Monty’S Functional Doctrine: Combined Arms Doctrine In British 21st Army Group In Northwest Europe, 1944-45 (Book Review)” By Charles Forrester., David Stubbs

Canadian Military History

Review of Monty’s Functional Doctrine: Combined Arms Doctrine in British 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 by Charles Forrester.

“Combat Mission Kandahar: The Canadian Experience In Afghanistan (Book Review)” By T. Robert Fowler, Craig Leslie Mantle

Canadian Military History

Review of Combat Mission Kandahar: The Canadian Experience in Afghanistan by T. Robert Fowler

“Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’S Warriors Came Of Age To Defeat The German Army In World War I (Book Review)” By Mitchell Yockelson, John R. Heckman

Canadian Military History

Review of Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I by Mitchell Yockelson

“A Small Price To Pay: Consumer Culture On The Canadian Home Front, 1939-1945 (Book Review)” By Graham Broad, Daniel German

Canadian Military History

Review of A Small Price to Pay: Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-1945 by Graham Broad

“Broken Promises: A History Of Conscription In Canada Revised Edition (Book Review)” By J.L. Granatstein And J.M. Hitsman, Caroline D’Amours

Canadian Military History

Review of Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in Canada (Revised Edition) by J.L. Granatstein and J.M. Hitsman

“Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill And The Vietnam Generation (Book Review)” By Mark Boulton, Alyssa Cundy

Canadian Military History

Review of Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation by Mark Boulton

“Polarity, Patriotism, And Dissent In Great War Canada, 1914-1919 (Book Review)” By Brock Millman, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

Review of Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914-1919 by Brock Millman

“Under The Blue Beret: A U.N. Peacekeeper In The Middle East (Book Review)” By Terry “Stoney” Burke, Michael K. Carroll

Canadian Military History

Review of Under the Blue Beret: A U.N. Peacekeeper in the Middle East by Terry “Stoney” Burke

The Liberation Of Groningen: The Diary Account Of Theo Polman, Greg Sennema

Canadian Military History

The city of Groningen in the Netherlands was liberated by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division during the final month of the Second World War. While the battle was not significant to the outcome of the war, the combat was nonetheless significant for both the participants, as well as the citizens who lived through four days of fierce street fighting. Using his grandfather’s detailed diary, and with references to the War Diaries of some of the battalions involved, the author describes the experience of one family that huddled in their home through the battle, and their interactions with Canadian soldiers after …

“Our Artillery Would Smash It All Up:” Canadian Artillery During The Battle Of The Somme, September-November 1916, Brendan Hogan

Canadian Military History

The historiography of the First World War has produced no recent comprehensive study of the Canadian artillery, despite its importance on the battlefield. This article seeks to explain how Canadian artillery evolved on the Somme. The central conclusions of this article are that the Canadian artillery’s performance during the battle was mixed, and that a number of technological, tactical, and organizational changes, not all of them Canadian, in the Canadian Corps that we recognize from the artillery of 1917-1918 were developed during, or as a result of, the Somme.

“Under Fathoms Of Salt Water:” Canada’S Ammunition Dumping Program, 1944-1947, Alex Souchen

Canadian Military History

This article examines Canada’s ammunition dumping program in the mid-1940s and pays special attention to the practical and technical dilemmas that influenced policy making and implementation. A pressing logistical crisis followed the end of the Second World War as crowded armaments depots ran out of storage space for leftover ordnance. In July 1945 a major explosion at the Bedford Magazine in Halifax Harbour heightened public safety concerns and influenced future disposal policies. From a range of imperfect destruction methods, dumping emerged as one of the most efficient alternatives; whenever possible conventional and chemical munitions were submerged. Although the quantities sunk …

The Command And Control Of Canadian And American Maritime Air Power In The Northwest Atlantic, 1941-1943, Richard Goette

Canadian Military History

Operational, organizational, doctrinal, and cultural differences hampered effective command and control of Canadian and American maritime air power defending shipping against U-boats off the east coast during the Second World War. The American desire to implement US unity of command over both nations’ maritime air forces clashed with the Canadian preference for simple cooperation. Canadian airmen resisted several American attempts to impose unity of command until the operational situation in the Battle of the Atlantic revealed inefficiencies in coordination which necessitated all maritime air power in the Northwest Atlantic be centralized under Canadian operational control in the spring of 1943.

Patient Experience And The Treatment Of Venereal Disease In Toronto’S Military Base Hospital During The First World War, Kandace Bogaert

Canadian Military History

During the First World War, the Canadian Espeditionary Force (cef) was infamous for having the highest rates of venereal infection among the Allies. Soldiers could be inspected at random, questioned about the source of their infection, and held in quarantine in hospital until cured. While medical officers published research on the prevalence and treatment of venereal disease, little has been written on the experiences of patients. This paper examines the experiences of venereal patients in Toronto’s Military Base Hospital in 1916. Soldiers’ correspondences reveal their perspectives, along with the ways in which the military’s management of venereal disease was laden …

Ice Bear: The Cultural History Of An Arctic Icon By Michael Engelhard, Geneviève Pigeon

The Goose

Review of Michael Engelhard's Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon.

Women War Artists In The Canadian War Museum Collection, 1914-1945: Treasures From The Paper Vault, Stacey Barker

Canadian Military History

While most Canadian war art of the First and Second World War was produced by male artists, a handful of women artists were commissioned to capture their own impressions of these conflicts. This piece highlights eight works by four such artists: Caroline Armington, Alma Duncan, Bobs (Zema) Cogill Haworth, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod. All are works on paper and all are part of the Canadian War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection of War Art.

Résumé: Bien que la plus grande part de l’art militaire canadien des Première et Seconde Guerres mondiales ait été produite par des hommes, il a été demandé à …

Dropping Question Marks: War Art, Leadership, The Canadian Forces And Afghanistan, Gertrude Kearns

Canadian Military History

As a contemporary war artist, Gertrude Kearns presents interpretive challenges to the commemoration and contextualization of controversial aspects of Canadian military history, both from her personal perspective and in terms of the institutional responsibilities associated with meaningful public presentations of war art. In the context of her decade-long Afghan War senior leadership series, and with reference to earlier Somalian and Balkan works, in this article she discusses the appropriateness of her selected subject matter as well as her own responsibility as a war artist in dealing with everything from disturbing and regular subjects to mission concept. Kearns reviews accountability, her …

Calibrating Official War Art And The War On Terror, Dick Averns

Canadian Military History

This paper comprises primary research investigating contemporary official war art in Canada, Australia, Egypt, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Findings are drawn from fieldwork conducted in these countries during the height of the so-called War on Terror, in 2008 and 2009. My thesis suggests that the degree to which nations are willing to provide military support for contemporary artists, to gain access to the frontlines of the War on Terror, serves as a barometer for how different nations either enable or disable conflict-related cultural canons. I demonstrate that official war art can provide important benchmarks …

Constituent Parts: Recent Portraiture In Canadian Military Art, Lindsey V. Sharman

Canadian Military History

Not common within the art historical record of the Canadian Military, the work of a number of visual artists participating in the Canadian Forces Artists Program demonstrates a keen and growing interest in portraiture. In this article, the work of Gertrude Kearns, Mary Kavanagh, and Erin Riley will be highlighted to illustrate the recent trend. Their work is contrasted with one another as well as with portraiture created by Canada’s war artists in the First and Second World Wars to bring to light the tensions of representation inherent in military portraiture. It will be shown that shifting perceptions found in …

Material, Trace, Trauma: Notes On Some Recent Acquisitions At The Canadian War Museum And The Legacy Of The First World War, Christine Conley

Canadian Military History

Recent acquisitions at the Canadian War Museum are considered in relation to the radical innovations of soldier-artists who endured the somatic conditions of the First World War trenches, privileging materiality and psychic reality over visual perception. Barbara Steinman and Norman Takeuchi bring the past into the present through the indexical presence of black and white photographic fragments and the emotive presentation of lost objects as signifiers of the desires of the absent. Scott Waters and Mary Kavanagh evoke dread and the contingency of death through anamorphic distortion and blinding luminosity. Like the suggestive surfaces of the Museum itself, these works …

Colville To Goble: Some Thoughts On The Evolving Place Of Photography In Canadian Military Art, Laura Brandon

Canadian Military History

This article focuses on the photographic work of two Canadian military artists whose careers are separated by half a century. Alex Colville (1920–2013) used photography in his work but rarely mentioned it and never publicly exhibited or acknowledged it. Elaine Goble (born 1956) bases all her work on photography, engages explicitly with it, acknowledges it, exhibits and donates it, but does not consider herself a professional photographer. An exploration of these two artists’ relationship with photography sheds some light on how attitudes to the medium have changed in recent decades. Photography’s new prominence in the digital age has affected artists, …

Book Review: Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography - Representing Canadian History Through Graphic Art, Brock J. Vaughan

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores how graphic art, specifically in the comic-strip form, can represent events of the past and engage readers in historical narratives. Chester Brown’s Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography tells history in a unique way by depicting heightened moments of drama in Riel’s life during the Red River Rebellion. Through vivid illustrations, Brown involves readers in the imaginative process and helps readers uncover Riel’s character and the choices he made during the series of events before his hanging for high treason in 1885. This paper contains original interpretations of Brown’s comic-strip biography, coupled with scholars’ opinions and critical analysis …

"Britannia’S Shield: Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton And Late-Victorian Imperial Defence (Book Review)" By Craig Stockings, James Wood

Canadian Military History

Review of Britannia’s Shield: Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton and Late-Victorian Imperial Defence by Craig Stockings

"The Little Third Reich On Lake Superior: A History Of Canadian Internment Camp R (Book Review)" By Ernest Robert Zimmerman, Jean-Michel Turcotte

Canadian Military History

Review of The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior: A History of Canadian Internment Camp R by Ernest Robert Zimmerman

"The Embattled General: Sir Richard Turner And The First World War (Book Review)" By William F. Stewart, Brian Douglas Tennyson

Canadian Military History

Review of The Embattled General: Sir Richard Turner and the First World War by William F. Stewart